Chapter 14. Managing Linux clients
Ready for another chapter on operating system deployment? Ha-ha, just kidding; I wouldn’t inflict that on you! Instead, let’s indulge in a change of scene and delve into the (relatively) new world of managing non-Windows clients—specifically, Linux.
ConfigMgr (and SMS, in its previous life) has been all about deploying and managing Windows environments, but with the release of ConfigMgr 2012 Service Pack (SP) 1 came the ability for us ConfigMgr admins to start managing systems running Mac OS X and Linux/UNIX-based operating systems.
Because you’re running an up-to-date version of ConfigMgr in your lab environment, you’re ready to rock with Linux. As shown in figure 14.1, you’ll introduce Ubuntu Server into your lab environment and use ConfigMgr to take control.
If you’ve never installed a Linux distribution before, fear not—it’s straightforward. ConfigMgr does support various versions of Linux and UNIX, but I’ve chosen Ubuntu for this lab because it’s easy to install and configure.
The first thing you’ll need is yet another virtual machine in your lab environment. If you need to power off CLIENT01 and/or CLIENT02 to free up resources for another VM, that’s fine. You won’t need those systems for the rest of this chapter.
Create a new virtual machine by using the specifications detailed in table 14.1.