Chapter 1. Before you begin
I still remember vividly my first foray into Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager. I was working as a network and systems administrator, and the IT team that I was a part of had just made an unfortunate discovery. Our fleet of desktops and laptops had increased fourfold in a short space of time, and the deployment techniques we were using, which were just about satisfactory for a small environment, couldn’t possibly scale and were now shown to be completely impractical. Even worse, we were facing a hardware refresh of nearly a third of the fleet, with no streamlined way to achieve it.
I jumped online and researched options, and Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) came up time and time again as the best-of-breed solution for Windows deployment. The next day I spun up a server and spent the next two weeks trawling through TechNet articles and blog posts about how to set it up, configure it, and get Windows deployed.
When I look back at how I set up that first ConfigMgr environment, I’m amazed that it ever worked at all. I didn’t know any of the best practices or finer nuances of the product and made some stunning, cringe-worthy errors in the bargain. Despite all of that, ConfigMgr got me and the business where we needed to be, and the whole experience ignited something of a personal zeal to learn as much as I could about the product, and to help educate other administrators who are in the same position as I was.