When a System Center 2012 Configuration Manager client is installed and successfully assigned to a Configuration Manager site, you will see the device in the Assets and Compliance workspace in the Devices node, and in one or more collections in the Device Collections node. When you select the device or collection that contains the device, you can select various management operations. However, there are also other ways to manage the client, which might involve other workspaces in the console, or tasks that don’t use the Configuration Manager console.

Use this topic for overview information for the tasks that can manage a Configuration Manager client from the Assets and Compliance workspace, as well as more detailed information about additional tasks to help you manage the Configuration Manager client. For information about how to configure the client, see How to Configure Client Settings in Configuration Manager.

Managing the Client from the Assets and Compliance Workspace

Use the information in the following tables for an overview of the management tasks that you can perform for client devices in the Assets and Compliance workspace:

Note
A Configuration Manager client might be installed but not displayed in the Configuration Manager console. This scenario can happen if the client hasn’t yet successfully assigned to a site, or the console must be refreshed or a collection membership updated. Additionally, a device can also display in the console when the Configuration Manager client is not installed. This scenario can happen if the device is discovered but the Configuration Manager client is not installed and assigned. Mobile devices that are managed by using the Exchange Server connector do not install the Configuration Manager client. Additionally, devices that are enrolled by Windows Intune do not install the Configuration Manager client.Use the Client column in the Configuration Manager console to determine whether the Configuration Manager client is installed so that you can manage it from the Configuration Manager console.

Managing Clients from the Devices Node

Use the following procedure and table to manage one or more devices from the Devices node in the Assets and Compliance workspace.

Important
Depending on the device type, some of these options might not be available.

To manage clients from the Devices node

Managing Clients from the Device Collections Node

Use the following procedure and table to manage devices in a collection from the Device Collections node in the Assets and Compliance workspace.

Many of the client management tasks that you can perform when you select a single device or multiple devices from the Devices node can also be performed at the collection level. This has the advantage of automatically applying the management task to all eligible devices in the collection. Although this can be a convenient method to manage multiple clients at the same time, it can also generate a lot of network packets and increase the CPU usage on the site server.

There are also some client management tasks that can only be performed at the collection level, which are listed in the following table.

Before you perform collection-level client management tasks, consider how many devices are in the collection, whether they are connected by low-bandwidth network connections, and how long the task will take to complete for all the devices. When you perform a client management task, you cannot stop it from the console.

To manage clients from the Device Collections node

Additional Tasks for Managing the Client

In addition to the management tasks that are available in the Assets and Compliance workspace, you can also manage the Configuration Manager client by using the following tasks:

Configure the Client Cache for Configuration Manager Clients

You can configure the location and amount of disk space that Windows Configuration Manager clients use to store temporary files for when they install applications and programs. Software updates also use the client cache, but software updates are not restricted by the configured cache size and will always attempt to download to the cache. You can configure the client cache settings when you install the Configuration Manager client manually, when you use client push installation, or after the client is installed.

The default location for the Configuration Manager client cache is %windir%\ccmcache and the default disk space is 5120 MB.

Important
Do not encrypt the folder used for the client cache. Configuration Manager cannot download content to an encrypted folder.
Note
More information about the client cache:The Configuration Manager client downloads the content for required software soon after it receives the deployment but waits to run it until the deployment scheduled time. At the scheduled time, the Configuration Manager client checks to see whether the content is available in the cache. If content is in the cache and it is the correct version, the client always uses this cached content. However, when the required version of the content has changed or if the content was deleted to make room for another package, the content is downloaded to the cache again.If the client attempts to download content for a program or application that is greater than the size of the cache, the deployment fails because of insufficient cache size and Configuration Manager generates status message ID 10050. If the cache size is increased later, the download retry behavior is different for a required program and a required application:
  • For a required program: The client does not automatically retry to download the content. You must redeploy the package and program to the client.

  • For a required application: Because an application deployment is state-based, the client automatically retries to download the content when it next downloads its client policy.

If the client attempts to download a package that is less than the size of the cache but the cache is currently full, all required deployments keep retrying until the cache space is available, until the download times out, or until the retry limit is reached for the cache space failure. If the cache size is increased later, the Configuration Manager client attempts to download the package again during the next retry interval. The client tries to download the content every four hours until it has tried 18 times.Cached content is not automatically deleted but remains in the cache for at least one day after the client used that content. If you configure the package properties with the option to persist content in the client cache, the client does not automatically delete the package content from the cache. If the client cache space is used by packages that have been downloaded within the last 24 hours and the client must download new packages, you can either increase the client cache size or choose the delete option to delete persisted cache content.

Use the following procedures to configure the client cache during manual client installation, or after the client is installed.

To configure the client cache when you install clients by using manual client installation

To configure the client cache folder when you install clients by using client push installation

To configure the client cache folder without reinstalling the client

Uninstall the Configuration Manager Client

You can uninstall the Windows Configuration Manager client software from a computer by using CCMSetup.exe with the /Uninstall property. Run CCMSetup.exe on an individual computer from the command prompt or deploy a package and program to uninstall the client for a collection of computers.

Warning
You cannot uninstall the Configuration Manager client from a mobile device. If you must remove the Configuration Manager client from a mobile device, you must wipe the device, which deletes all data on the mobile device.

Use the following procedure to uninstall the Configuration Manager client from computers.

To uninstall the Configuration Manager client from the command prompt

Manage Conflicting Records for Configuration Manager Clients

Configuration Manager uses the hardware ID to attempt to identify clients that might be duplicates and alert you to the conflicting records. For example, if you reinstall a computer, the hardware ID would be the same but the GUID used by Configuration Manager might be changed.

When Configuration Manager can resolve a conflict by using Windows authentication of the computer account or a PKI certificate from a trusted source, the conflict is automatically resolved for you. However, when Configuration Manager cannot resolve the conflict, it uses a hierarchy setting that either automatically merges the records when it detects duplicate hardware IDs (the default setting), or allows you to decide when to merge, block, or create new client records. If you decide to manually manage duplicate records, you must manually resolve the conflicting records by using the Configuration Manager console.

To change the hierarchy setting for managing conflicting records

To manually resolve conflicting records

Initiate Policy Retrieval for a Configuration Manager Client

A Windows Configuration Manager client downloads its client policy on a schedule that you configure as a client setting. However, there might be occasions when you want to initiate ad-hoc policy retrieval from the client—for example, in a troubleshooting scenario or when you are testing.

Use the following procedures to initiate ad-hoc policy retrieval from the client outside its scheduled polling interval, either by using the Actions tab on the Configuration Manager client or by running a script on the computer. You must be logged on to the client computer with local administrative rights to perform these procedures.

Note
For Configuration Manager SP1 only: You can use client notification to initiate client policy retrieval outside the scheduled client policy polling interval.You can manage clients that run Linux and UNIX. For information about policy retrieval for clients that run Linux and UNIX, see the Computer Policy for Linux and UNIX Servers section in the How to Manage Linux and UNIX Clients in Configuration Manager topic.

To initiate client policy retrieval by using client notification (Configuration Manager SP1 only)

To manually initiate client policy retrieval by using the Actions tab on the Configuration Manager client

To manually initiate client policy retrieval by using a script

See Also