Use the information in the following sections to help you configure your Windows environment to support System Center 2012 Configuration Manager.

Prepare Active Directory for Configuration Manager

When you extend the Active Directory schema, this action is a forest-wide configuration that you must do one time per forest. Extending the schema is an irreversible action and must be done by a user who is a member of the Schema Admins Group or who has been delegated sufficient permissions to modify the schema. If you decide to extend the Active Directory schema, you can extend it before or after Setup. For information to help you decide whether to extend the Active Directory schema, see Determine Whether to Extend the Active Directory Schema for Configuration Manager.

Tip
If the Active Directory schema was extended with the Configuration Manager 2007 schema extensions, you do not have to extend the schema for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. The Active Directory schema extensions are unchanged from Configuration Manager 2007.

Three actions are required to successfully enable Configuration Manager clients to query Active Directory Domain Services to locate site resources:

  • Extend the Active Directory schema.

  • Create the System Management container.

  • Set security permissions on the System Management container.

Extend the Active Directory Schema

Configuration Manager supports two methods to extend the Active Directory schema. The first is to use the extadsch.exe utility. The second is to use the LDIFDE utility to import the schema extension information by using the ConfigMgr_ad_schema.ldf file.

Note
Before you extend your Active Directory schema, test the schema extensions for conflicts with your current Active Directory schema. For information about how to test the Active Directory schema extensions, see Testing for Active Directory Schema Extension Conflicts in the Active Directory Domain Services documentation.

Extend the Active Directory Schema by Using ExtADSch.exe

Extend the Active Directory Schema by Using an LDIF File

Create the System Management Container

Configuration Manager does not automatically create the System Management container in Active Directory Domain Services when the schema is extended. The container must be created one time for each domain that includes a Configuration Manager primary site server or secondary site server that publishes site information to Active Directory Domain Services

Tip
You can grant the site servers computer account Full Control permission to the System container in Active Directory Domain Services, which results in the site server automatically creating the System Management container when site information is first published to Active Directory Domain Services. However, it is more secure to manually create the System Management container.

Use ADSI Edit to create the System Management container in Active Directory Domain Services. For more information about how to install and use ADSI Edit, see ADSI Edit (adsiedit.msc) in the Active Directory Domain Services documentation.

To manually create the System Management container

Set Security Permissions on the System Management Container

After you have created the System Management container in Active Directory Domain Services, you must grant the site server's computer account the permissions that are required to publish site information to the container.

Important
The primary site server computer account must be granted Full Control permissions to the System Management container and all its child objects. If you have secondary sites, the secondary site server computer account must also be granted Full Control permissions to the System Management container and all its child objects.

You can grant the necessary permissions by using the Active Directory Users and Computers administrative tool or the Active Directory Service Interfaces Editor (ADSI Edit). For more information about how to install and use ADSI Edit, see ADSI Edit (adsiedit.msc).

Note
The following procedures are provided as examples of how to configure Windows Server 2008 R2 computers. If you are using a different operating system version, please refer to that operating systems documentation for information on how to make similar configurations.

To apply permissions to the System Management container by using the Active Directory Users and Computers administrative tool

To apply permissions to the System Management container by using the ADSI Edit console

Configure Windows-Based Servers for Configuration Manager Site System Roles

Before you can use a Windows Server with System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, you must ensure the computer is configured to support Configuration Manager operations. Use the information in the following sections to configure Windows servers for Configuration Manager. For more information about site system role prerequisites, see the Prerequisites for Site System Roles section in the Supported Configurations for Configuration Manager topic.

Note
The procedures in the following sections are provided as examples of how to configure Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 computers. If you are using a different operating system version, please refer to that operating systems documentation for information on how to make similar configurations.

Remote Differential Compression

Internet Information Services (IIS)

Request Filtering for IIS

See Also