FIX SCCM Client Issues Using Automation

Computers running the SCCM client are the clients of SCCM server infra. When the SCCM clients are unhealthy or are reporting problems with accessing SCCM server infra, your SCCM infra is not providing much value. In this post, I will share the process to fix SCCM client issues affecting client assignment, deployment, status, and management.

[Related Topic – Newbies SCCM Education and Training Posts]

What is the SCCM Client Health?

The first step is to understand what is client health! SCCM Client Health refers to the state of the core client components. When the SCCM core client components and dependant Windows components are not active and functioning, SCCM client is NOT healthy. The core components will vary depending on the features (or agents) that have been enabled for your SCCM infra.

The Client is Health = Windows, and SCCM Core Client Components are ACTIVE & FUNCTIONING

SCCM Client Health Issues Assessment? 

The SCCM client health assessment is intended to provide an analysis of SCCM client functionality. This assessment helps you to identify unhealthy clients. This process also helps to understand the cause of the client health issues in your environment.

The SCCM client, health issues assessment, is a continuous process. The following high-level aspects are which can be reviewed for assessing your client health. Following is the best place to identify the unhealthy client in your SCCM environment.

Client Health Assessment = Identify Unhealthy SCCM Clients 

[Related Topic – Newbies SCCM Education and Training Posts]

Identify SCCM Client Issues

You have identified the unhealthy clients, and now it’s time to identify issues. I would recommend to segregate or group unhealthy clients based on issues. This method will help you to fix the problems systematically.

I have listed down the most common issues which I found in different environments. My recommendation would be to create collections for the following issue and add devices to respective collection depending on the issue. These collections would help to track the client issues in a better way.

It’s not easy to identify & segregate the clients as per the issues. But I would recommend using client status node and SCCM SQL reports to segregate the unhealthy SCCM clients. I’m sure SCCM reports will help you to find out and help to fix SCCM client health issues.

1. SCCM Client Version does not match the site version – Management Insights
2. Multiple/Older SCCM Client Versions found in the hierarchy – Management Insights
3. Clients reporting no or outdated Hardware Inventory – SSRS Reports/WQL Query
4. Clients reporting no or outdated Software Inventory (Still Using??) – SSRS Reports/WQL Query
5. Clients reporting no or outdated Heartbeat Discovery – SSRS Reports/WQL Query
6. Clients reporting no or outdated software update scan status – SSRS Reports/WQL Query
7. Obsolete Clients – Clients reporting more than one record (Hardware ID) – SSRS Reports/WQL Query
8. Non-Clients – Clients Discovered but not Installed – Admin Console/WQL Query
9. Duplicate GUIDs – Client GUIDs that are not unique – SSRS Reports/WQL Query
10. MAC address(es) shared by many devices – SSRS Reports/WQL Query
11. The older version of Windows Update Agent is found on clients – SSRS Reports/WQL Query
12. Clients found with duplicate names (non-obsolete) – SSRS Reports/WQL Query
13. Server Service is not Running – CMPivot?
14. WMI Issues – Scripts 
15. Communication issues between client and server segment – Scripts
16. Client issues because of Antivirus softwares – Scripts

Other Causes – Fix SCCM Client Issues

SCCM site server policies, Firewall port, Security Policies, and Antivirus Software can be a reason for unhealthy or not report SCCM client. It’s not recommended to use aggressive client policies, hardware, software inventory schedules within your infra. These components could cause issues with your client health.

I have highlighted some of the policy configuration and maintenance tasks related issues. I think this list can be used as a checklist to understand whether these are causing issues with client health in your SCCM environment.

1. Client policy polling interval more frequently
2. Hardware Inventory is scheduled more frequently
3. Client policy polling interval more frequently
4. Hardware Inventory is scheduled more frequently
5. Client Policy for Content Cache
6. SCCM Maintenance Cleanup Tasks are running to delete unwanted objects?
7. Active Directory Discovery is configured properly?
8. Active Directory Cleanup is happening or not?

[Related Topic – Newbies SCCM Education and Training Posts]

CCMEval Tool – Built-in Tool to Fix SCCM Client Issues

The client health evaluation tool – ccmeval.exe – get installed on all SCCM clients. The SCCM Client, Health evaluation engine, is an executable file named ccmeval.exe. This client, health evaluation tool, is installed with the SCCM client and runs on computers. The install process creates a scheduled task named “Configuration Manager Health Evaluation”.

The client health evaluation tool – ccmeval.exe – helps to maintain the client health of SCCM clients. FIX SCCM Client Issues. In my experience, this tool will be able to resolve 20-30% client issues without any manual intervention. Following thirty(29) tasks are included in SCCM 1802 health evaluation(ccmeval.exe) tool:-

1. Verify WMI service exists
2. Verify/Remediate WMI service startup type
3. Verify/Remediate WMI service status
4. WMI Repository Read/Write Test
5. Verify/Remediate client WMI provider
6. WMI Repository Integrity Test
7. Verify BITS exists
8. Verify/Remediate BITS startup type
9. Verify/Remediate client prerequisites
10. Verify/Remediate client installation
11. Verify SMS Agent Host service exists
12. Verify/Remediate SMS Agent Host service startup type
13. Verify/Remediate SMS Agent Host service status
14. WMI Event Sink Test
15. Microsoft Policy Platform WMI Integrity Test
16. Verify/Remediate Microsoft Policy Platform Service Existence
17. Verify/Remediate Microsoft Policy Platform service startup type
18. Verify/Remediate Antimalware service startup type
19. Verify/Remediate Antimalware service status
20. Verify/Remediate Antimalware service startup type for Windows 10 or up
21. Verify/Remediate Antimalware service status for Windows 10 or up
22. Verify/Remediate Network Inspection service startup type
23. Verify/Remediate Network Inspection service startup type for Windows 10 or up
24. Verify/Remediate Windows Update service startup type
25. Verify/Remediate Configuration Manager Remote Control service startup type
26. Verify/Remediate Configuration Manager Remote Control service startup type
27. Verify/Remediate Configuration Manager Proxy service startup type
28. Verify/Remediate Configuration Manager Proxy service status
29. Verify/Remediate SQL CE database is healthy 

FIX SCCM Client Issues?

This phase is the hardest part in client health issues assessment. This is the time to identify fixes or resolutions for identified issues. There is no easy way to determine the solution to each problem.

I have listed down 16 common issues in the above part of this post. This segregation helps to identify and systematically fix the client issues.

Microsoft has documentation (refer to the Resources section) to troubleshoot many of the SCCM client issues. Select one or two machines from each category of issues & troubleshoot and identify the fix.

[Related Topic – Newbies SCCM Education and Training Posts]

I would recommend using collections to deploy the fixes. You need to create a different set of collections for each fix. This method will help you to target and fix devices in that collection. These collections will help you from reporting perspective as well.

There are community tools like ConfigMgr Client Health to fix the SCCM client health issues automatically. However, it’s essential to understand what are you fixing before you deploy community tools.

Best Practices to keep FIX SCCM Client Issues

• Make sure all the Windows updates/fixes are installed
• Make sure all the SCCM clients are running with the latest version
• Analyse the Security and Antivirus policies
• Migrate to Windows 10 – Much stable WMI and Windows core components
• Use Automation and Community Tools to continuously monitor and fix the client health issues
• DO NOT run automation scripts without understanding the issue
• DO NOT reinstall the client without understanding and troubleshooting the issue
• DO NOT rebuild the WMI repository without any troubleshooting

Resources:-

WMI Troubleshooting Tips

Windows Management Instrumentation WMI

Troubleshooting Configuration Manager Client Issues

Troubleshooting issues where clients are not reporting

How to Monitor Client Status in SCCM

How to check Client Status in SCCM

Managing Duplicate Globally Unique Identifiers in Systems Management Server 2003

How to Configure Client Settings in Configuration Manager

About Collecting Hardware Inventory

Hardware Inventory in Configuration Manager

Configure Settings for Client Approval and Conflicting Client Records

Planning for Maintenance Tasks for Configuration Manager