Useful ConfigMgr query for Intune Enrolled Devices



How to check if Sideloading is enabled


In order to test if Windows Intune has enabled sideloading, open an elevated command prompt and type "slmgr.exe /dlv" and hit enter.

If the output looks similair to this, sideloading is not enabled

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After going through Intune enrollment, wait 15 to 20 minutes and try again. You should get similair output to this:

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How to put a "Request Remote Assistance" icon on users desktop in Windows 8 or 8.1


Currently Windows Intune does not support Remote Assistance Invitations (requests) to be sent on Windows 8 using Windows Intune Center. However, you can achieve a similair solution using the power of Group Policy.

This method will provide end users with a desktop icon which, when clicked, generates a request for asssistance. An e-mail is composed and the the request file is attached.

Note: the computer needs to be domain joined, a solution for Workgroup Windows computers will be explained in a future blog.

Edit or create a GPO targeted against your end-users.

  • Open Group Policy Management to edit or create a policy.

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  • Browse to "Computer Configuration", "Administrative Templates", "System", "Remote Assistance".
  • Edit "Configure Offer Remote Assistance" and select "Enabled"

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  • Depending on whether your IT administrators want to view or control end-users sessions, select the desired option accordingly:

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  • Select "OK" and return to the Group Policy Management console.

Edit or create a Group Policy Preference targeted against your end-users

  • Either use the previously edited Group Policy or create a new one.
  • Browse to "User Configuration", "Preferences", "Windows Settings" and right-click "Shortcuts" followed by "New -> Shortcut".

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  • In the shortcut properties make sure to enter the details as follows:
    • Action: Update
    • Name: Request Remote Assistance (note: can be anything)
    • Target Type: File System Object
    • Location: Desktop
    • Target Path: %windir%\system32\msra.exe
    • Arguments: /email (note: can be changed according to desired behaviour)
    • Start in: %windir%\system32
    • Icon File Path: %windir%\system32\msra.exe

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  • Select "OK" and return to the Group Policy Management console.
  • Close the Group Policy Management console.

Test the new Remote Assistance procedure

On a Windows 8/8.1 client PC, open a Command Prompt and type:

  • gpupdate

You should see the policy being applied and a new icon appear on the destop.

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Note: If the icon doesn't appear test whether the policy is being applied using "gpresult /r" or check the eventlog for more detailed information.

If an end user double-clicks the "Request Remote Assistance" icon, the default e-mail client will be opened with a Remote Assistance Invitation attached.

Instruct the end user to send this e-mail to the central helpdesk or a specific user.

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Consider leaving a reply in case this post helped you. Thanks!


How to troubleshoot User Enrollment for ConfigMgr 2012 and Windows Intune


To double-check whether an user has been prepared for Windows Intune enrollment, please check the following scenarios:

  1. Create an account in your on-premise Active Directory
  2. Wait or manually run a User Discovery, check in ConfigMgr 2012 whether the user is listed

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3. Check in SQL whether the user has a Cloud ID

select user_name0,cloudUserID from USer_disc where Name0 like '%pieter%' <--- replace PIETER with the username you are troubleshooting.

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4. Open the cloudusersync logfile and check for any potential errors.

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5. Restart the SMS_EXECUTIVE service to force the sync. 

6. Check the eventlog of the dirsync server for any potential issues:

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  7. Enable the FIM log  

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8. Perform a manual sync using the powershell commandlet  

  • Open "C:\Program Files\Windows Azure Active Directory Sync\DirSyncConfigShell.psc1" on your dirsync server.
  • Type "Start-OnlineCoexistenceSync" and hit enter.

9. Open a browser and navigate to

https://account.manage.microsoft.com/UserManagement/UserManager.aspx

Check to see if the user is listed.

In case this post helped you, please consider leaving a reply.


Manual run a directory sync with Azure AD Sync


Recently Microsoft released the Azure AD Sync tool, the download can be found here and the documentation is located here.

Now if you want to run a manual sync, perform these steps:

  1. Start a command prompt
  2. Navigate to "c:\program files\microsoft azure ad sync\bin"
  3. Run "DirectorySyncClientCmd.exe delta"

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Good luck!


NDES - Error 12186 in ndesplugin.log


Are you trying to configure certificate deployment for mobile devices and run into the error 12186 in ndesplugin.log? This post might help you reach a solution.

The exact error shown in ndesplugin.log is:

Failed to send http request /CMCertificateRegistration/Certificate/VerifyRequest. Error 12186

This error occurs if the account under which NDES application pool runs may not have read permission to the client certificate's private key while doing https connection to the Certificate Registration Point (CRP).

In order to assign this permission connect to the NDES server and perform the next steps:
  1. Get the Unique Container Name of the NDES client certificate:
    certutil -VerifyStore My
    The container will be listed as something similar to this:
    Key Container = fc9b3ab746d7b0739ae8c6c0468e0eb5_6de86d88-a02c-4b33-91b0-43d27ebe455b
  2. Check the location of the certificate by matching the unique container name acquired at step 1 with the filenames, on Windows Server 2012 R2 check this location:
    %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys
    (these certs will be hidden, use ATTRIB or adjust Explorer to show hidden files.)
  3. Run the icacls.exe command line tool to grant R (Read) permission for the NDES user account (DOMAIN\User).  Make sure you adjust the filename starting with fc9b3……
    iCacls.exe %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys\fc9b3ab746d7b0739ae8c6c0468e0eb5_6de86d88-a02c-4b33-91b0-43d27ebe455b /grant DOMAIN\User:R

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Restart the NDES server and you should not get the same error. Please consider leaving a reply in case this post helped you.


NDES: Event ID 29 (The password in the certificate request cannot be verified)


This week I received an e-mail from our support organization about a case regarding NDES. One of our customers (Bechir Hammami from Germany) ran into an issue where NDES stopped working after performing an upgrade on their ConfigMgr 2012 environment.

Luckily the customer managed to resolve the issue themselves and even shared the steps he took - hoping others would benefit from the information. Thanks Bechir for resolving and sharing this info - much appreciated!

 

The issue:

After the upgrade the following error was shown in the eventlog:

NDES: Event ID 29 (The password in the certificate request cannot be verified. It may have been used already. Obtain a new password to submit with this request.)

1) Check installed features

The following features are necesarry for ConfigMgr/NDES:

Install-WindowsFeature Web-Windows-Auth
Install-WindowsFeature Web-ISAPI-Ext

Install-WindowsFeature Web-Metabase
Install-WindowsFeature Web-WMI
Install-WindowsFeature BITS
Install-WindowsFeature RDC
Install-WindowsFeature NET-Framework-Features
Install-WindowsFeature Web-Asp-Net
Install-WindowsFeature Web-Asp-Net45
Install-WindowsFeature NET-HTTP-Activation
Install-WindowsFeature NET-Non-HTTP-Activ

The highlighted ones didn't appear as active as they got deactivated by the migration.

2) Install mising features

Executed this dism command (Attention: for installation is the ISO necessary):

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /all /Source:<d:\sources\sxs> /LimitAccess

Afterwards, for Framework 4.5, install "HTTP Activation"

Restart SMA_Site_Component_Manager Service, which sorts out the CRP issue on the ConfigMgr and NDES server.

Eventlog after these changes:

Additional information from Kevin Myrup (MSFT)

Whenever you see event id 29 on the NDES server: "NDES: Event ID 29 (The password in the certificate request cannot be verified. It may have been used already. Obtain a new password to submit with this request.)"

And the policymodule for Intune/ConfigMgr is installed, this always means something is wrong on the Certificate Registration Point (CRP) site role (or in the case of Intune Standalone, the CRP web service running on the NDES server itself). The case above is one example. But there are also other reasons it can happen.

The first place to look is the CRP.log. If the server is healthy, crp.log will show the reason why the cert request was rejected (there are several reasons this could happen, such as the challenge password has expired, the subject name doesn't match what is in the ConfigMgr database, for example when someone's display name or email address has changed in AD, or there is some problem with replication between Intune and ConfigMgr).

If the server is not healthy, as was the case for Bechir above, crpctrl.log will usually have some indication of this.


New Blog Location


My role has previously primarily focused on Microsoft Intune, nowadays it's more towards our whole Enterprise Mobility Suite. This includes Azure AD premium, Microsoft Intune and Azure Rights Management Service. Due to the change of focus (and name change of Microsoft Intune) I decided to create a new blog.

The new blog can be found here:

https://blogs.technet.com/b/ems/