I'd like to start a small discussion on an issue I ran into recently. The full story can be found here: http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/maikkoster/archive/2013/09/03/configmgr-2012-sp1-meets-tablets-the-case-of-the-unknown.aspx
To give a short abstract. We had to deploy Windows 8 to some tablets using ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 and used a Task Sequence deployed to the "Unknown Computers" collection. The tablets we had for testing didn't have any built-in NIC, so we used a USB-To-Ethernet dongle and a docking station. First deployment(s) ran fine, but on the second device (using the same dongle, as the first device doesn't need it because it's being used wireless) it didn't start the Task Sequence as it was no longer unknown. The first device had the Mac Address assigned, so if ConfigMgr queries for devices based on MAC and UUID, it will find a resource based on the Mac (of the dongle) and not handle it as an unknown computer. We forwarded this information to Microsoft and the response was, to buy a dongle/docking station per device. Which is not only a cost-intensive solution, it will most likely also not work on the long run, as I would guess most support staff doesn't really unpack and connect a dongle/docking station per deployment, rather having a few "stations" prepared to do the deployments and then just hand out the still boxed dongle/docking station to the user. At least that's how most of our deployments are done internally. So we tried to get it working with a few dongles/docking stations only. But we didn't wanted to deploy this to a large collection like all systems and we also didn't wanted to pre-stage each single tablet. So we created a collection based on the Mac Addresses of the Dongles and docking stations we used for this initial deployment and restricted the deployment of the TS to media and PXE only. This prevented the deployment to be shown in the Software center of already deployed devices. However, all the "old" tablets were still shown in this collection and would stay in there, until this entry ages out. After some testing on how to get rid of this information as soon as possible, we figured out, that we had to update the DDR and then force a full hardware inventory, to get this done. So we advertised a package with a batch that executes two WMIC commands (show in the blog post). This has to run on a regular schedule on the computers in the collection, as the dongle has to be disconnected during execution to get rid of its Mac address. When the dongle was disconnected and the two commands have been executed, they would drop out of the collection and no longer execute the commands. While this is a usable solution, it still is a bit complex and doesn't feel "smooth". So I thought I reach out to the combined knowledge and experience of this group to get some additional input and hear about solutions others have found. As I assume, I'm not the first one who tackled this issue. And with an increasing amount of tablets even in enterprises, this will also become more common over time. Regards Maik Koster ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information of Cameron and its Operating Divisions. Any unauthorized use or disclosure is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and delete and destroy all copies of the original message inclusive of any attachments. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
