(From Susana Guedes (Microsoft) Blog and myself )

The Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007* (SCCM) has an Software Development Kit (SDK) that allows you to build plug-ins for the SCCM Management Console, to build automation scripts for batch processing, and to manipulate Configuration Manager 2007 client settings.

In this post I will explain how to create a VB Script to automate the following tasks**:

• Create a software distribution package (including corresponding programs)
• Add the package to every distribution point
• Advertise one of the package programs to a specific collection
• Generate Program and remote flag

The environment must have SCCM and corresponding SDK installed. You can download the SCCM SDK version 4.0 on the following link: System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Software Development Kit (SDK) v4.0 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=064A995F-EF13-4200-81AD-E3AF6218EDCC&displaylang=en). Create a new file with a .vbs file extension to make the VBScript code. The scripts will use WMI classes provided by the SCCM SDK to manipulate SCCM. In order for you to inspect those classes and even see the SCCM database data relative to those classes, you can use the a WMI explorer tool, I have used a PowerShell GUI named Wmi Explorer made by Marc van Orsouw (http://thepowershellguy.com/blogs/posh/archive/2007/03/22/powershell-wmi-explorer-part-1.aspx).

 

At this point we are ready to start scripting.

Let's move on to the first task "Create a software distribution package (including corresponding programs)" 

The WMI namespace for SCCM is root\sms. Inside root\sms you will have a different namespace for each SCCM site you have, in the format root\sms\site_<sitecode>. Beside them, other namespaces may also exist, like, for instance, root\sms\inv_schema. Before you can do any operation, you must first connect to the WMI namespace root\sms\site_<sitecode> where the <sitecode> corresponds to the SCCM site code to which you want to add the package. SWbemLocator object is used to establish an authenticated connection to a WMI namespace and can be understood as the top object on the WMI scripting library.

 

The following code connects to root\sms, iterates through all its sites to locate the local site, and connects to it. You can also connect to a remote site (see How to Connect to an SMS Provider in Usefull Links). For future use, a reference to the Site object will be kept.

 

 

Once you have a connection to SCCM Site, you can create a new package. The package is an object of the SMS_Package class which you can inspect with WMI Explorer. Using that tool you will find the following properties of an SMS_Package: ActionInProgress, AlternateContentProviders, Description, ExtendedData, ExtendedDataSize, ForcedDisconnectDelay, ForcedDisconnectEnabled,  ForcedDisconnectNumRetries, Icon, IconSize, IgnoreAddressSchedule, ISVData, ISVDataSize, Language, LastRefreshTime, Manufacturer, MIFFilename, MIFName, MIFPublisher, MIFVersion, Name, PackageID, PackageType, PkgFlags, PkgSourceFlag, PkgSourcePath, PreferredAddressType, Priority, RefreshPkgSourceFlag, RefreshSchedule, ShareName, ShareType, SourceDate, SourceSite, SourceVersion, StoredPkgPath, StoredPkgVersion, Version.

 

The following code creates a new package, configures some of the package properties, saves changes using the Put method and, lastly, gets the package ID automatically generated from the put method. The package ID will identify the new package latter on the script.

Now you can create the package programs and associate them with the already created package. A program is an object of the class SMS_Program which you can also inspect using WmiExplorer. SMS_Program from sdk version 4.0 has the following properties: ActionInProgress, ApplicationHierarchy, CommandLine, Comment, DependentProgram, Description, DeviceFlags, DiskSpaceReq, DriveLetter, Duration, ExtendedData, ExtendedDataSize, Icon, IconSize, ISVData, ISVDataSize, MSIFilePath, MSIProductID, PackageID, ProgramFlags, ProgramName, RemovalKey, Requirements, SupportedOperatingSystems, WorkingDirectory.

  

The following code creates two new programs, one for install and one for uninstall, configures some of their properties, and saves changes using the Put method and. Note that one of the properties of the program is the package ID of the package to which it bellongs,, is this property that creates a relation between the already created package and the new program.

At this point we have completed the first task "Create a software distribution package (including corresponding programs)".

Let's move on to the task "Add the package to every distribution point ". 

Once created, the package is ready to be added to distribution points. You can add the package to specific distribution points, but in this example we will show you how to add it to every distribution point available on the current site, to show you how to query the SCCM database to get the distribution points list. A distributoin point is an object of the class SMS_DistributionPoint, which describes a location (NALPath - Network Access Location Path) where package source files are distributed to clients. A distribution point is allways associated with a given package, and a package can have several distribution points. The SMS_DistributionPoint class has the following properties: BitsEnabled, IsPeerDP, IsProtected, ISVData, ISVDataSize, LastRefreshTime, PackageID, RefreshNow, ResourceType, ServerNALPath, SiteCode, SiteName, SourceSite, Status.

 

The following code queries the SCCM database to get a list of all distribution points, they are stored on the SMS_SystemResourceList table with the role name "SMS Distribution Point". For each distribution point resource found, a new instance of SMS_DistributionPoint is created, configured, and saved. 

Comment by Neven Radic; This code will add packages to all site DPs , not to every DP in environment if SCCM SDK isn't installed on the server.

At this point we have completed the second task "Add the package to every distribution point ".

Let's move on to the task "Advertise one of the package programs to a specific collection". 

In this task we will advertise the Install program to the collection named "All Business Application Servers". A collection is an object of the class SMS_Collection and contains the following properties: CollectionID, CollectionRules, CollectionVariablesCount, Comment, CurrentStatus, LastChangeTime, LastMemberChangeTime, LastRefreshTime, MemberClassName, Name, OwnedByThisSite, RefreshSchedule, RefreshType, ReplicateToSubSites, ServiceWindowsCount. An advertisement is an object of the class SMS_Advertisement and has the following properties: ActionInProgress, AdvertFlags, AdvertisementID,  AdvertisementName, AssignedSchedule, AssignedScheduleEnabled, AssignedScheduleIsGMT, AssignementID, CollectionID, Comment, DeviceFlags, ExpirationTime, ExpirationTimeEnabled, ExpirationTimeIsGMT, HierarchyPath, IncludeSubCollection, ISVData, ISVDataSize, MandatoryCountdown, PackageID, PresentTime, PresentTimeEnabled, PresentTimeIsGMT, Priority, ProgramName, RemoteClientFlags, SourceSite, TimeFlags.

 

The following code queries the SCCM database to find all the collections and iterates the received list to find the specified collection. If the collection was found, a new advertisement is created, configured and then saved.

 

You have to define the instOSDetails variable as an array as I did at the top. I have a 1 defined for the array indicating that there are 2
values (0 and 1). You have to then use a different ProgramFlag to select "This program can run only on specified client platforms" on the
Requirements tab. If you don't select this then it will ignore any selection in the list of OS's. Then of course you do a Put_ on the program
to save it.

This VBS script will allow you to enter a ConfigMgr 2007 site server name and site code and will list the supported platforms and write them to an excel spreadsheet. 

Flags specifying how the program should run when the client is connected either locally or remotely to a distribution point. The default value is 48.  Following the binary to decimal conversion process (http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-from-Binary-to-Decimal).  In the case of the 11th digit the binary value is a one with 10 trailing zero's (1000000000).  When you want to specify multiple flags, you must use the OR operator with the the decimal values.  The following flags (I converted its binary digit to decimal):  

Do not forget to verify the  scrip result in the SCCM Administration Console.