How to Monitor Applications in Configuration Manager

In Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, you can monitor the deployment of all software, including software updates, compliance settings, applications, task sequences, and packages and programs. You can monitor deployments by using the Monitoring workspace in the Configuration Manager console or by using reports.

Applications in Configuration Manager support state-based monitoring, which allows you to track the last application deployment state for users and devices. These state messages display information about individual devices. For example, if an application is deployed to a collection of users, you can view the compliance state of the deployment and the deployment purpose in the Configuration Manager console.

An application deployment state has one of the following compliance states:

Success – The application deployment succeeded or was found to be already installed.
In Progress – The application deployment is in progress.
Unknown – The state of the application deployment could not be determined. This state is not applicable for deployments with a purpose of Available. This state is typically displayed when state messages from the client are not yet received.
Requirements Not Met – The application was not deployed because it was not compliant with a dependency or a requirement rule, or because the operating system to which it was deployed was not applicable.
Error – The application failed to deploy because of an error.

You can view additional information for each compliance state, which includes subcategories within the compliance state and the number of users and devices in this category. For example, the Error compliance state includes the following subcategories:

Error evaluating requirements
Content related errors
Installation errors

When more than one compliance state applies for an application deployment, you can see the aggregate state that represents the lowest compliance. For example:

If a user logs in to two devices and the application is successfully installed on one device but fails to install on the second device, the aggregate deployment state of the application for that user displays as Error.
If an application is deployed to all users that log on to a computer, you will receive multiple deployment results for that computer. If one of the deployments fails, the aggregate deployment state for the computer displays as Error.

The deployment state for package and program deployments is not aggregated.

Use these subcategories to help you to quickly identify any important issues with an application deployment. You can also view additional information about the devices that fall into a particular subcategory of a compliance state.

Application management in Configuration Manager includes a number of built-in reports that allow you to monitor information about applications and deployments. These reports have the report category of Software Distribution – Application Monitoring.

For more information about how to configure reporting in Configuration Manager, see Reporting in Configuration Manager.

To monitor the state of an application in the Configuration Manager console

In the Configuration Manager console, click Monitoring.
In the Monitoring workspace, click Deployments.

To review deployment details for each compliance state and the devices in that state, select a deployment, and then, on the Home tab, in the Deployment group, click View Status to open the Deployment Status pane. In this pane, you can view the assets with each compliance state. Click any asset to view more detailed information about the deployment status to that asset.

Note
The number of items that can be displayed in the Deployment Status pane is limited to 20,000. If you need to see more items, use Configuration Manager reports to view application status data.The status of deployment types is aggregated in the Deployment Status pane. To view more detailed information about the deployment types, use the report Application Infrastructure Errors in the report category Software Distribution – Application Monitoring.

Note

The number of items that can be displayed in the Deployment Status pane is limited to 20,000. If you need to see more items, use Configuration Manager reports to view application status data.The status of deployment types is aggregated in the Deployment Status pane. To view more detailed information about the deployment types, use the report Application Infrastructure Errors in the report category Software Distribution – Application Monitoring.

To review general status information about an application deployment, select a deployment, and then click the Summary tab in the Selected Deployment window.

To review information about the applications deployment type, select a deployment, and then click the Deployment Types tab in the Selected Deployment window.

Important
The information shown in the Deployment Status pane after you click View Status is live data from the Configuration Manager database. The information shown in the Summary tab and the Deployment Types tab is summarized data. If the data that is shown in the Summary tab and the Deployment Types tab does not match the data that is shown in the Deployment Status pane, click Run Summarization to update the data in these tabs. You can configure the default application deployment summarization interval as follows: In the Configuration Manager console, click Administration. In the Administration workspace, expand Site Configuration, and then click Sites. From the Sites list, select the site for which you want to configure the summarization interval, and then in the Home tab, in the Settings group, click Status Summarizers. In the Status Summarizers dialog box, click Application Deployment Summarizer, and then click Edit. In the Application Deployment Summarizer Properties dialog box, configure the required summarization intervals and then click OK.

Important

The information shown in the Deployment Status pane after you click View Status is live data from the Configuration Manager database. The information shown in the Summary tab and the Deployment Types tab is summarized data. If the data that is shown in the Summary tab and the Deployment Types tab does not match the data that is shown in the Deployment Status pane, click Run Summarization to update the data in these tabs. You can configure the default application deployment summarization interval as follows:

In the Configuration Manager console, click Administration.
In the Administration workspace, expand Site Configuration, and then click Sites.
From the Sites list, select the site for which you want to configure the summarization interval, and then in the Home tab, in the Settings group, click Status Summarizers.
In the Status Summarizers dialog box, click Application Deployment Summarizer, and then click Edit.
In the Application Deployment Summarizer Properties dialog box, configure the required summarization intervals and then click OK.

To monitor the state of an application in the Configuration Manager console

See Also

Concepts