ConfigMgr State of the Nation Q/A: Pt 2

In part 2 of this webinar Q and A, you’ll learn the answers to the community’s burning questions about Configuration Manager. If you missed it, you can still re-watch the webinar here.
Question: Does the Cloud management gateway support multiple subscriptions of different azure tenants?
Answer: Yes, you can have multiple instances of the CMG.
Question: With all of the references to 1701, do you anticipate that this will be a full release version next month, or remain a preview?
Answer: If the Configuration Manager keeps on track, there will be another Technical Preview next month. There is not any word on when we will see the next Current Branch release, but we suspect it will be around the time of the Windows 10 Creators Update release.
Question: We are a beer brewery in about 70 countries and we are currently still on 2012R2 SP1 CU3. So what should we aim for? We are working on 1606 baseline build but it seems to get end of support before we finish. We have CAS with 4 primary sites with under that around 70 secondary sites balanced over those 4, per region. Do you say we can simplify that all?
Answer: Absolutely! If you are less than 150K clients, then you should aim for 1 Primary Site along with 1E Nomad. To give you an idea of what Nomad can do, one of our larger global customers is managing 385K clients with only 12 Distribution Points. Please feel free to follow up with us and we would be happy to show you what you can achieve.
Question: I have a client that can’t upgrade many clients because of dot net … or, perhaps can you explain to me what will be broken or impossible to do?
Answer: Install the client with the option /ExcludeFeatures:ClientUI or /skipprereq:dotnetfx40_client_x86_x64.exe that will not install the Software Center on the client.
Question: Kent just mentioned a blog where someone took his driver method and “made some magic” with it.  Whose blog was it? Could you please show the Software update scan timeout feature?
Answer: The holy grail of ConfigMgr driver management, or whatever you’d like to call it by Kim Oppalfens. There was a new setting that was introduced in CB 1606 called Evaluate software updates from cached scan results. Also, a new Task Sequence variable that allows you to control the timeout value for the software updates scan during a Task Sequence. This variable is called SMSTSSoftwareUpdateScanTimeout.
Question: I am on an old version, 2012 SP1 build 7801, what can I upgrade directly to?
Answer: Upgrade to the latest Current Branch Baseline build 1606 and once that is done go to 1610. After that is complete, then you would proceed to upgrade the 2012 SP1 clients directly to CB 1610. Be sure to upgrade your clients as soon as possible for best performance and to take advantage of the latest features.
Question: Talk about issues with multicast on different VLans! W10 servicing feature – now that AMT is deprecated, do you use the Intel new SCS to wake machines and do out of hours updates?
Answer: We use 1E WakeUp, which comes with either 1E Nomad or NightWatchman, for waking up machines out of hours.
Question: Is the Cloud Management Gateway just another name for Intune? Or is it a separate beast? Is it set up in our DMZ just like the ICBM?
Answer: Cloud Management Gateway is a new role that provides an easier way to manage clients on the Internet. It is a new site system role that is deployed to Microsoft Azure and requires an Azure subscription.
Question: With the recent update to support O365 updates click to run, does use CM infrastructure and 1E Nomad? Or where I can find information?
Answer: Yes and yes – Office 365 client updates were supported by Configuration Manager Current Branch 1602 and Nomad 6.1.100. For more information see: Manage Office 365 ProPlus updates with Configuration Manager and Nomad – What’s New.
Question: I need to move CM infrastructure to cloud provider (AWS). Primary sites in North and South America.
Answer: Having a full primary site run in AWS works, although you might now find a public support statement from Microsoft what is the future of SCCM and Intune – will they be merged? Will SCCM and Intune ever become feature-equivalent? Personally, I believe the future (1-6 years) will be hybrid with SCCM as the dominant part
Question: What is the future of SCCM and Intune – will they be merged? Will SCCM and Intune ever become feature-equivalent?
Answer: Personally, I believe the future (1-6 years) will be hybrid with SCCM as the dominant part.
Question: When will 365 client installer be available in production?
Answer: I assume you are talking about the Deploy Office 365 apps to clients feature that first showed up in Technical Preview 1609 – there is no word if or when this feature will show up in Current Branch.
We hope you enjoyed part 2 of our Qand A. Thank you for joining us and be sure you register for our next webinar!