How To Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines HTMD Blog

Let’s learn how to create SCCM Configuration Items and Baselines in ConfigMgr. The requirements and how to create a guide of configuration items and baselines in SCCM are explained below.

A configuration item is a container in ConfigMgr that stores specific information. It is widely used in SCCM to identify software updates, application models, etc.

In this post, I will cover the information we configure depending on the configuration item type. Configuration items can include the following information:

Detection method information
Settings
Compliance rules
Supported platforms

In this post, I will refer to Configuration Items as CI and Configuration Baselines as CB.

Video

Video Tutorial – SCCM Configuration Item Baseline Explained by Deepak Rai, Configuration, Remediation ConfigMgr

SCCM Configuration Items

The Configuration Item and Baseline can be used to check compliance settings for users and devices. In a larger environment migrating from one Windows 10 version to another, we may be required to check the compliance settings of OS versions, driver versions, application versions, user information, etc. If we find any noncompliant devices or users, we can use CI and CB to remediate them.

What are Configuration Items in ConfigMgr

We can handle device settings using CI. CIs are not deployed directly to the collections but can be deployed via CB. The Configuration Items in ConfigMgr contain any of the following types that can be used in CB.

Configuration Items in ConfigMgr
Active Directory Query
Assembly
File System
IIS Metabase
Registry Key
Registry Value
Script
SQL Query
WQL Query
XPath Query

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Table 1

What is Configuration Baselines in ConfigMgr

Configuration Baselines in ConfigMgr are collections of CIs and CBs. A CB can include at least one or more CIs to be deployed to device and user collections. The items below can also be part of a CB.

Configuration Items
Software Updates
Configuration Baselines

How to create custom Configuration Items in ConfigMgr

Open Configuration Manager Console. Go to Asset and Compliance -> Compliance Settings -> Configuration Items -> click ‘Create Configuration Item‘

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.1 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.1

Provide the name of CI, select the option below, and click ‘Next’.

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.2 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.2

Select the operating system version for which you want to create the CI and click ‘Next‘.

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.3 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.3

Click on New to create new settings.

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines | ConfigMgr — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.4

Provide the settings Name and select the settings type according to the requirement. Here, I’m going to check the OS version through WQL, so I have selected ‘WQL Query‘ as below.

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.5 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.5

Click on the ‘Compliance Rules‘ tab and press New to create a new rule. You can also create compliance rules as the next step as well.

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.6 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.6

In the’ For the following values’ section, provide the name of the compliance rule and the build number of the Win10 20H2 version. Press ‘Ok‘ to finalize.

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.7 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.7

NOTE: You can add a custom PowerShell script to remediate if the CI is non-compliant and can generate the noncompliance report as well by selecting ‘Remediate noncompliant rules when supported‘ & ‘Report noncompliance if this setting instance is not found. I’m using a simple WQL query to detect the OS version in this scenario.

As the next step, press ‘Apply‘ -> ‘Ok‘

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.8 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.8

Press Next -> Next -> Close to complete.

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.9 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.9

How to create Configuration Baselines

This section will teach us how to create a ConfigMgr Configuration Baseline.

Open Configuration Manager Console. Go to Asset and Compliance -> Compliance Settings -> Configuration Baselines -> click ‘Create Configuration Baseline‘

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.10 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.10

Provide configuration baselines ‘Name‘.

Then click on ‘Add‘ and select ‘Configuration Items‘.

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.11 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.11

Select your configuration items and press ‘Add‘ -> ‘Ok‘.

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.12 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.12

Now configuration items will be added to the configuration baseline. Press ‘Ok‘ to finalize.

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.13 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.13

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.14 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.14

How to deploy Configuration Baselines

Select the Configuration Baseline you created, Right-click -> Deploy

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.15 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.15

Click on ‘Browse‘ to select the collection for deployment. Also, you can customize the scheduled time as per requirement.

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.16 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.16

Click ‘Ok‘ to finalize.

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines - Fig.17 — How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines – Fig.17

You can see CB’s reporting in another blog post.

Resources

ConfigMgr SCCM DCM Implementation and Troubleshooting Guide

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Author

Debabrata Pati has more than 8+ years of experience in IT. Skilled in MEMCM, Azure, and Powershell. More than Six (6) years of experience in MEMCM (SCCM) administration, OSD, and Troubleshooting for the environment with more than 100K client devices.

1 thought on “How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines”

91 Club
November 14, 2024 at 1:51 am
This post is incredibly helpful! The step-by-step guidance on creating SCCM Configuration Items and Baselines makes it so much easier to understand. I never knew how crucial Configuration Baselines were until now. Thanks for sharing such valuable insights!

How to Create SCCM Configuration Items Configuration Baselines

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